One of the strangest common threads among all the leaks we've seen of the iPhone 5S so far is that none have featured the fingerprint sensor we've heard so much about. Yet with some leaked photos from French site Nowhereelse.fr, that may have changed. Depicting a new home button flex cable part, the image looks as though it could at last prove that one of the iPhone 5S's most anticipated features may be a reality, after all.

Earlier today, TmoNews reported (via MacRumors) that T-Mobile announced vacation blackout days for its employees between September 20 and 22. Why's that news for us? Because it all but confirms that the new iPhones will be available on September 20, the date previously put forward in numerous rumors, most notably by Japanese business publication Nikkei.

Oh, the rumor mill is cooking now and Apple's doing a few things in the background to kick things up a notch. We've seen quite a few high quality leaked photos (if they're to be believed, that is; while this gaudy thing above might not be the gold iPhone Apple's supposedly working on, we've got no evidence the other is real either). And we're getting closer to a date announcement. The suspense is killing us!

Want to know what a difference a good photo can make? Take a look at these photos of an alleged gold iPhone 5S shell taken by Japanese site ASCII.JP (via MacRumors), which shows that it really does lean closer to "champagne" than "ingot." That still may not be enough to escape concerns of tackiness for some critics, but now it at least looks like something in line with Apple's reputation for quality aesthetics.

By now you've probably heard the jokes that the "C" in iPhone 5C stands for "cheap" on account of its supposed low price and plastic shell, but if a recent video from Taiwan bears any truth, the little guy can take a beating. There's no way to tell if the shell in the photo really belongs to an iPhone 5C, but if it is, adopters of the device may not need to worry that they're stepping down too far in quality.

If you're wondering when the iPhone 5S and its little buddy the iPhone 5C will be coming out, September 20 seems like a good date to pin your hopes on. Today, noted Japanese business publication Nikkei reported (via Cnet) that both devices would make their debut on that Friday.

While few outside of Apple's Cupertino headquarters truly know what the company has in store for the iPhone with the rumored September 10 event, at least one analyst weighs in on how things might shake out for a possible family of handsets.

It's no secret that handset maker HTC has been struggling in recent months, despite the critical success of its latest Android-based HTC One smartphone. Now it may have another problem, as a high-profile partnership looks toward the exit sign.

Rumors and leaks are heating up and you know what that means: pure speculation! Fakes! A slowly growing fever pitch of excitement as we get closer and closer to the big day. If the 9/10 predictors are right, we'll be seeing Apple invites pretty soon, but only time will tell. That, and a MacLife columnist goes Android rogue — GASP!!!